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John Mitchell
John Mitchell, or more commonly known as Mitchell, was a vampire of legend. Born on the 29th of July, 1893 Revealed in the Script for All God's Children in Ireland, Mitchell was a former WWI soldier. During the War, Mitchell met William Herrick and numerous other vampires. In an act of true bravery, Mitchell gave up his life to become a vampire to save his troops. Before his secondary death, Mitchell lived with his friends, George Sands, Annie Sawyer and later Nina Pickering, in a flat. He was in the end mercy-killed by George Revealed in The Wolf-Shaped Bullet due to numerous reasons correlating to his actions in the Box Tunnel 20 Massacre, and his growing bloodlust. History Early Life John Mitchell was born on July 29th, 1893 in Ireland. He was an only child born to unnamed parents. Revealed in The Looking Glass Mitchell tells Bernie in Another Fine Mess (Episode 1.4) that as a child he was an outsider, and didn't fit in all that well. He goes on to mention that he was much different to children his age, both due to his nature and his one true wish of happiness. As he grew up, most of his younger days would've been influenced by both the Catholic church, or the army. Mitchell becomes a solider in his early 20s, and joins the British Army. But he mentions that his time there was nothing that he enjoyed. Revealed when Mitchell talks to Bernie in Another Fine Mess During his solider days, Mitchell fights in the First World War. While there, he is put in charge of a battalion, and while on the battle field he stumbles across William Herrick and a group of vampires. Herrick and his group are shown and mentioned to have been picking through bodies to feed on, and Mitchell had the misfortune to stumble across them. The vampire offers the young solider a deal, in which to protect the lives of the other men. Mitchell accepts the deal, and thus becomes a vampire under the hands of Herrick. Shown through multiple flashbacks, Mitchell sticks with his maker and becomes his attack dog. One night in 1964 however, Mitchell began to manifest some of his lost humanity, shown his disgust on how humans sometimes don't fight back when he kills them, before letting a woman live. In the year of 1969, while leaving a flat after a night of events, Mitchell takes Josie Hunter as hostage whilst waiting for Herrick to pick him up. The pair talk, Josie fearless while doing so and in the end, he spares her life. Mitchell and Josie end up dating for sometime and he becomes cleans during this time period, though the two apparently break up and Mitchell slipped back to his previous ways for some time. However, Mitchell had started to hate and regret his life as he starts to wrestle between his remaining humanity and vampire nature. In his early years as a vampire, Mitchell was quite a hero among those that knew him. Stories of his exploits are still spoken of among the vampire clan in Britain. These seem to be a cause of great guilt for Mitchell who asks Herrick in "Episode 1.5" to stop their retelling, preferring for himself to be forgotten. It is revealed in Episode 2.8 that Mitchell is 117 years old, and like all vampires is immortal unless killed (According to the discussion in The Wolf-Shaped Bullet this can include suicide). Although he can survive daylight, his eyes are overly sensitive to natural light, prompting him often to wear sunglasses outside in the daytime. Mitchell has attempted several times to abstain from drinking blood (one attempt was a New Year resolution for 2000, with the aid of a fellow vampire called Carl). At this time, Mitchell showed an extreme addiction to blood, as well as heightened aggression, lack of control and extreme panic due to blood withdrawal. At some point, Mitchell got a job as a cleaner in a hospital in Bristol. One night, when going to meet Seth and two other vampires, Mitchell befriended the werewolf George after saving him from the trio of vampires Mitchell had intended to meet. This began their strong bond of friendship and trust.He looks out for him, particularly around the full moon and they moved into a rented house together in an effort to live more like ordinary people. They soon realized it was haunted by Annie, whom Mitchell recognized as a ghost and 'kindred spirit.' The trio bond over their shared condition as outcasts, neither fitting into a supernatural or a human world. Series 1 Infuriated with himself after 'converting' fellow hospital employee Lauren into a vampire (as covered in both the pilot episode and Episode 1.1), Mitchell decided to give up the blood and attempts 'Being Human' once more. At several points, he faced a conflict of emotions as he decides whether to 'convert' people around him to prevent their deaths. After converting the child of a neighbor for this reason, Mitchell becomes convinced that vampirism can be a force for good and agrees to rejoin the vampire clan, and its leader Herrick's shadowy plans for their exposure to the world. It is in this time he re-encounters Josie who is terminally ill. When the sinister plans of Herrick are revealed, Mitchell rebels and is mortally wounded but saved again by Josie who gives him her rejuvenating blood. However, Mitchell is unable to fight Herrick and George kills Mitchell's maker while as a werewolf. Series 2 In series 2, Mitchell has become the new "king" of the vampire clan in Bristol, hiding evidence of their feedings, rebuilding their human front and intending to wean them off blood, although his activities are hampered by their blood lust. He recruits his vampire friend Ivan to be a role-model for abstention but being unable to completely forsake blood after so long, Mitchell allows him to feed in secret. He thus faces a spiraling series of 'compromises' to his values in taking up responsibility for the other vampires. Beginning a new relationship with a human doctor, Lucy, Mitchell decides to relinquish command to Ivan. However after the deaths of the vampire clan by an explosion at the funeral parlor, and subsequently discovering that they have been betrayed by Lucy, Mitchell realizes that he has wasted his time trying to hide his blood lust and goes on a frenzy with Daisy, newly-widowed from Ivan. After brutally killing the coroner Quinn, Daisy and Mitchell attack and kill a train carriage full of people in an arbitrary retaliation against humankind. 20 people are murdered, the media calls it the "Box Tunnel 20 Massacre". Crazed with blood, Mitchell pays a last visit to George and Annie at the house, warning George to stay away from cities in the future, indicating plans for the unleashing of a vampire-led genocide on the world. While searching for Lucy he has a confrontation with the priest Mark at the hospital chapel, who reminds him that George saw him as a good man worth saving when he was injured and inadvertently reveals Lucy's connection to the organisation that seeks to 'cure' George, Nina and Annie. Finding the organisation's headquarters, Mitchell kills most of its members and confronts Lucy, countering her claims that he and his kind are evil with the theological argument that God made them just as he made mankind and by pointing out that she killed despite having a choice, but he does not kill her. Enraged that Kemp cast Annie into the afterlife, he nearly kills him but stops when George demands that he not do so in Annie's name. After the events at the 'Facility' he leaves Bristol with George and Nina to live in a cottage in the countryside and 'lay low.' He later shows mercy to Lucy when she shows up at the cottage looking for forgiveness and grief when she is then killed by Kemp. Series 3 When Mitchell enters Purgatory to rescue Annie - following a terminally ill patient at the hospital where George and Nina now work through the Door after his demise -, he learns that the time and date of his death has been confirmed, and he will be killed by a werewolf at some unspecified- but apparently not-too-distant- future date, although he later comments to Annie that he doesn't believe a word of what he heard. Although haunted by both the 'prophecy' of his death and the continued police hunt for the person responsible for the 'Box Tunnel 20' massacre, Mitchell rejected an offer to depart Britain to live with the vampire 'Old Ones', commenting during a talk with permanently teenage vampire Adam that his friends help him remain clean as their goodness inspires him by forcing him to think about the disappointment they would feel if he succumbed to his thirst. After a confrontation with vampire 'fan' Graham, Mitchell tried to tell Annie the truth about the tunnel massacre, but Annie simply told him that whatever he had to tell her didn't matter, assuring him that all she wanted was the man he was now and that what he'd done in the past didn't matter compared to what he'd done for her and George, the two subsequently kissing. Although Annie tries to find ways for their relationship to become physical at first, Mitchell admits that he actually prefers their current bond, as sex has always been about violence rather than love with him, and he prefers for his relationship with Annie to be 'pure' and apart from that. Despite some tension with werewolf vampire-hunter MacNair due to Mitchell's concerns regarding the 'prophecy' of his death- although he claims to Annie that he doesn't believe in fate-, Mitchell and MacNair reached a certain understanding when they worked together to save George and Nina from a group of vampires, although MacNair still feels that Mitchell's sins will catch up to him eventually. When Herrick returns to life, Mitchell initially attempts to stake him- particularly after Cara stakes herself before she can tell Mitchell how she and Daisy brought Herrick back-, but is convinced by George to let Herrick live on the grounds that he deserves the same chances everyone has given Mitchell. When Annie learns about Mitchell's role in the massacre, she tearfully convinced him to allow himself to be arrested, Mitchell going along with it to prove his love for her even as he tries to escape being processed due to the risks if his true nature is exposed. Although Herrick released Mitchell- revealing in the process that his resurrection was aided by the fact that he was torn apart rather than just being staked-, Mitchell finally staked Herrick when he concluded that he had seen and done enough in his life. With the news that another man had been framed for the Box Tunnel Twenty he returned to the house to ask George to kill him, recognizing that whoever had set up that frame would want a favor later and wanting to free his friends of the taint he had brought to their lives. George is initially reluctant to carry out the act on his best friend, but when an Old One, Edgar Wyndham, came to visit the group with the intention of 'recruiting' Mitchell as his attack dog, he staked Mitchell to prevent his friend being used in this manner. Mitchell's legacy lived on, as he was mentioned many times during Series 4 and when Annie went to Purgatory, a future version of Eve told Annie that "they're waiting for you", referring to Mitchell, George and Nina. Annie goes through the door in Purgatory with a big smile on her face. It is likely that he is forgiven for his sins as he made the ultimate sacrifce - this proves that part of his humanity remained intact. George, Nina, Annie, Eve and Mitchell are finally together at peace. Q&A With Toby Whitehouse Abilities Mitchell has all the powers and weaknesses of other vampires, though due to his advanced age, Mitchell is stronger than younger vampires. He has shown to possess the strength to overpower an adult man with one arm, and easily lift and carry him across the room. He is immune to most forms of conventional harm, such as when he was hit by a car and was seemingly unaffected, however he is still affected and responds to pain in a human manner; such as when punched or kicked in the shins. He is also constantly aware of ghosts and werewolves, and can hear and smell better than humans. He was able to tell that Nina was becoming a werewolf before her first transformation, and was able to hear the heartbeat of a person sitting across from him. He is also able to heal and recover more quickly by feeding on a living victim, which he did to heal his near fatal stake wound. He is capable of gaining the upper hand in a fight against Thomas McNair, who is an exceptionally skilled fighter and Vampire hunter. Presumably, due to being a soldier in the first World War, he has basic training in firearms and combat. An ability that is unique to Mitchell is his slight resistance to the Taint, due to small exposures to Denise over a long period of time. Because of it, while he is still affected, he is able to control himself more than other vampires. Appearances *Pilot Series One #''Flotsam and Jetsam'' #''Tully'' #''Ghost Town'' #''Another Fine Mess'' #''Where The Wild Things Are'' #''Bad Moon Rising'' Series Two #''Cure and Contagion'' #''Serve God, Love Me and Mend'' #''Long Live The King'' #''Educating Creature'' #''The Looking Glass'' #''In The Morning'' #''Damage'' #''All God's Children'' Series Three #''Lia'' #''Adam's Family'' #''Type 4'' #''The Pack'' #''The Longest Day'' #''Daddy Ghoul'' #''Though the Heavens Fall'' #''The Wolf-Shaped Bullet'' Official Being Human Novels #''The Road'' #''Chasers'' #''Bad Blood'' Relationships (click on the links for the main article) Romantic Relationships *Annie *Becca *Josie *Lauren *Lucy Friendships *Bernie *Carl *Daisy *George *Ivan *Nina Antagonistic Relationships *Seth *Herrick * Tom Family Relationships *Mitchell's family *Infectors/Infectees Victims During his years as a vampire Mitchell has killed a lot of people. He is responsible for the deaths of: Arthur Hanley, Sally, William Herrick, Lauren Drake, Graham, Josie Hunter, a soldier in a bar in Glasgow in 1932, a woman in Paris in 1933, 2 women in a London flat in 1969, a couple in a park, countless members of the CenSSA, Chief Constable Wilson, Coroner Stephen Quinn, the victims of the Box Tunnel 20 Massacre: *Lia Shaman *Donna Whycliffe *Glenn Moorham *Mary Finchly *Matthew Nelson *Dean Brocten *Victoria Abbotts *Lisa Scally *Dawn Green *Andrew Driecoll *Robbie Jenkins *George Franks *Edith Horson *Brian Smallbridge *six unnamed victims and many more. He also turns Bernie and Lauren into vampires. Quotes by Mitchell about Mitchell Trivia *Mitchell is the only character of the original trinity to not meet his successor in the new trinity. *His counterpart in the American remake is Aidan Waite, who is named after Aidan Turner, who is the actor who plays Mitchell. Gallery References de2:John Mitchell fr:John Mitchell Category:BBC Characters Category:BBC Vampires Category:Main Character BBC Category:Deceased Category:Character BBC Novel Category:Vampire-Human Romance Category:Vampire-Werewolf Friendship Category:Vampire-Ghost Romance Category:Supernatural Trinity Category:Supernatural Trinity BBC